


Shore leave

by greenfionn



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Bisexual Obi-Wan Kenobi, F/M, Huddling For Warmth, Set sometime around/after season 2, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:33:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28959516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenfionn/pseuds/greenfionn
Summary: He straightened up and gestured beside him, bowing slightly. “Your accommodations await, Duchess.”“Not just a peacekeeper but a survivalist too,” she said, crawling gracefully under the snow-covered overhang and sighing as she sat down. She shivered again and pulled her robe tighter around her.Obi-Wan crawled in after her, dragging the second deflated pod behind him with rapidly numbing fingers. “The snow should insulate us well enough from below. We can wrap this around ourselves to trap the air. I’m afraid we’ll have to lie close together to conserve warmth.”“Afraid, are you?”Her tone of voice was dangerous. He cleared his throat. “That’s one word for it.”
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze
Comments: 5
Kudos: 39





	Shore leave

**Author's Note:**

> This is based solely off the first two seasons of Clone Wars! I have only known Satine for three episodes and I am deeply invested in this ship.

“Think of it as a… cozy getaway,” suggested Obi-Wan as he hauled the remains of their inflatable ejection pods over the snow towards the small rocky outcropping. He could just hear Anakin’s voice in his mind correcting that to “romantic.” The icy wind stung the tips of his ears and tore at his robes.

“I really don’t know why I’m surprised at this point,” said Satine, shaking her head and glancing above them to the top of the ridge where in the distance the smoke from the ruins of their ship could still be seen through the falling snow and fading light. But a smile crept in at the corners of her eyes. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

Obi-Wan knelt, the snow crunching under his knees, and spread out the thick, flexible plastic material of the first pod beneath the outcropping. “Relax. Anakin and Ahsoka are surely too sensible to climb down after us in the dark and will be finding themselves a safe place to spend the night as well. We’ll find each other in the morning when the ion storm is no longer interfering with our communicators and be off this unpleasant planet. We just have to get through the night.”

Easier said than done, he thought, but he didn’t want to worry Satine. It was very cold and would only get colder. At best, they were in for an uncomfortable night. At worst, a dangerous one. 

He straightened up and gestured beside him, bowing slightly. “Your accommodations await, Duchess.”

“Not just a peacekeeper but a survivalist too,” she said, crawling gracefully under the snow-covered overhang and sighing as she sat down. She shivered again and pulled her robe tighter around her.

Obi-Wan crawled in after her, dragging the second deflated pod behind him with rapidly numbing fingers. “The snow should insulate us well enough from below. We can wrap this around ourselves to trap the air. I’m afraid we’ll have to lie close together to conserve warmth.”

“Afraid, are you?” 

Her tone of voice was dangerous. He cleared his throat. “That’s one word for it.”

He sat down with his back to the open air and settled the stiff material of the pod behind his shoulders so it protruded above and beside him, forming a barrier against the wind and snow. The wind dropped immediately, but tendrils of cold air still snuck in around them to pluck at their clothes.

“It’s a bit warmer out of the wind. I don’t think we need to cuddle up just yet,” Satine said. The snow was forming a delicate coating on the hood of her robe.

Obi-Wan eyed her chattering teeth, but didn’t push it. “You know, I had hoped for time to catch up, but this was not the scenario I had in mind.”

“You didn’t arrange a life-threatening crash landing just to spend some quality time with an old  _ friend _ ?” she said, with just an especial emphasis on the last word. “Or perhaps for another chance at a daring rescue.”

“If you think this is daring, your standards have dropped dramatically,” he said lightly. He could hear the plastic rustle with her shivers - good. If they both stayed warm enough to shiver the night through, he’d count it a success. “And if you spend enough time with Anakin, you’ll find that life-threatening crashes are an inevitability.”

“Ah, I wondered why I heard Ahsoka say ‘again?’ as we ejected.”

“Yes, I’m afraid Ahsoka has suffered from her master’s tendency to destroy anything airborne even more than I have.”

“In all seriousness, he seems like a skilled Jedi. I’m glad you have such a reliable man at your back, Obi-Wan.”

“Oh, please tell Master Yoda about Anakin’s reliability the next time you see him. And record a holo.” The snow was picking up and Obi-Wan could feel it piling up against the plastic behind him. That was good too - it would insulate them as well as any blanket if it accumulated. 

Satine shook with a fresh burst of shivers and Obi-Wan, losing patience, said, “Satine, please, you’re freezing. And I am too.”

Careful not to dislodge the snow, he stretched out on his side and waited. She hesitated a moment longer, then lay down next to him, their clothes barely brushing. He pulled the pod down over them to create a small plastic cocoon. 

Almost immediately he felt less cold, the shared heat of their bodies warming the air trapped around them. The sun had dropped completely behind the horizon, and perhaps it was the closeness combined with the gathering dark that allowed him to say, “Sometimes I worry about him. Anakin.”

Satine tilted her head against his shoulder, silently encouraging him. 

“Please don’t say I told you so, but I do worry about what this war is doing to us. To all of us. And Anakin in particular.”

“I wouldn’t.”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. “You would.”

“Well, not to a man who seems like he’s talking himself into agreeing with me,” she said, and he smiled. “I do know  _ something _ of diplomacy.”

“But there’s no arguing that his tactics win battles. And victories are in short enough supply that any qualms one might have about a Jedi who perhaps-” He stopped, unable to pick a word that both described Anakin’s behavior accurately and was something he was willing to say out loud. 

“Crosses a line?” Satine suggested delicately. 

“Indeed. Who crosses a line, when— Satine, we are  _ all _ crossing lines that the Jedi Order that I grew up in never imagined so much as toeing.”

“Then it’s good he has such a reliable man at  _ his _ back.”

“Something the two of you have in common right now,” he pointed out. 

“Indeed,” said Satine, and stretched against him in a way that made him realize he had warmed up quite a bit.

“You know, when I did this with Kit Fisto I didn’t appreciate at the time how much warmer it was to be the little spoon,” he found himself saying. 

“With Kit Fisto?” Satine’s voice was sleepy.

“Yes, he’s another Jedi. It was a different planet, of course. In fact as I recall it was a moon. We were on a mission together, before the war, and it went wrong. It was even colder than this. Looking back, I think we must have been in considerable danger, though I didn’t really realize it at the time. Youth - always invincible.”

“Anakin’s crash-landings, your snowstorms - I’m starting to think I ought never to travel with Jedi again!”

“I won’t deny we have a penchant for finding ourselves in trouble. But we’ve even more of one for getting ourselves back out again, so never you worry.”

“Hmm,” she said skeptically, and nestled closer - much closer.

They lapsed into silence. Obi-Wan, who was starting to feel somewhat overheated metaphorically if not literally, wrenched his thoughts away from the memory of Kit Fisto’s broad chest before he got himself into trouble, and wondered what the woman lying alongside him might be thinking.

“What about you, Satine? Do you have a reliable man at  _ your _ back?”

“I don’t think you have the right to ask that, Obi-Wan,” she said coolly. 

“No—” said Obi-Wan, feeling suddenly wretched. “No, I mean— do you have someone you trust? Out there on Mandalore? I’m half a galaxy away and I worry, Satine,” he finished.

Over the sound of the wind he heard her sigh. “It’s hard,” she admitted. “Pre Vizsla, Tal Merrick… I trusted them. Now, I’m not sure who I can trust. I know what I’m doing is right and I have to be strong for my people, but sometimes I feel very alone.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t think of anything to say that and silence fell again. He realized Satine had stopped shivering a while ago, and now Obi-Wan heard her yawn. 

“Sleep, if you want to,” he offered. “It will be a long night.” She relaxed into him with a sigh. Cautiously, he draped his arm over her waist and she let out a pleased, sleepy sound.

With the icy wind stealing the heat from his back, he himself was still too chilly to fall asleep, though he’d warmed up enough to have stopped shivering. Satine’s body was a warm soft line against his front. She tucked her head into his chest and her breathing slowed as she drifted off to sleep.

The sun had set long enough ago that Obi-Wan gauged it was as dark as it was going to get, but with snow thick on the ground and banks of clouds thick in the air, the night was no more than gloomy. He could see the pale shine of Satine’s hair spread out before him and was suddenly, violently tempted to bury his face in it. 

Her scent filled the small pocket of warm air they had created for themselves, bringing back with sharp clarity memories of other moments spent in close quarters, in situations often more dangerous than this one. In all the months they had spent on the run together they had never been this close, though he had yearned for it with all the passion of youth. 

He was now older and, he hoped, wiser, but it seemed some things never changed.

The small voice of good sense in the back of his mind was too easily ignored. Obi-Wan let himself luxuriate in the warmth she was throwing off, let himself notice the curve of her hip and backside where she nestled against him.

Heat pulsed through him and Obi-Wan realized he was more than warm enough. In fact, he could stand to cool off somewhat before Satine woke up.

He shifted backwards, trying to create a few centimeters of space between their bodies. Satine stirred, waking. “Obi-Wan?”

“Go back to sleep,” he whispered, hoping she wouldn’t notice— 

“Why, Obi-Wan,” she said, low-voiced and amused, “is that your lightsaber, or are you just happy to see me?”

“I’m always happy to see you, Satine,” Obi-Wan said, unable to prevent painful sincerity slipping through. “And that’s not my lightsaber.”

The soft figure curled against him shook with laughter until he broke out laughing too - but she didn’t move away.

“I bet this didn’t happen with Kit Fisto,” she said finally, the warm remains of mirth in her voice. 

The pause went on too long. Obi-Wan cleared his throat. “Kit Fisto... is a very handsome Jedi.”

“ _ Obi _ ,” she said, scandalized, and twisted around to look up him in the eye. “Well? You can’t stop there.”

“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell.”

“Obi-Wan!”

“Oh, Satine, do you really want to hear details of my old lovers?”

“Lovers? I thought—” Her voice sharpened. “Or is this another area where Jedi ideals crumble in the face of reality? I was under the impression Jedi were forbidden to…”

He chuckled, in part to hear the eloquent Satine hesitate to speak plainly, and also to cover the sting of the implication that she believed he would betray his principles - just not with her. “There’s no need to be shy.”

She huffed. “That the Jedi were forbidden to fuck.” The bolt of arousal that went through him at simply hearing that word on her lips was embarrassing. 

“We are forbidden attachment,” Obi-Wan said. It was a common misconception, and one he had been both painfully thankful for and bitterly resentful of during the year they had spent together all that time ago. “We are not forbidden to... fuck.” She was still pressed so close to him that he was sure she could feel the way his body reacted as he said “fuck” and blushed despite himself.

She pulled back from him to look him full in the face. Her eyes roved over him, expression puzzled.

“Obi-Wan— then why did you let me think…”

He couldn’t look away from her.

“Satine,” he said helplessly as she drew closer. 

Their faces were very close together now, and it felt like time stood still. He could no longer hear the howl of the wind, just their rapid breaths in the still air of their refuge. Her face was creased from sleep and her lips were parted. 

At the last moment he jerked back.

“Satine, don’t kiss me,” he whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. “I can’t— I can’t know what it’s like.”

He felt her go still in the cradle of his arms. 

“We are forbidden attachment,” he said thickly. “And my dear, I am too attached already.”

For the slightest moment, he saw what heartbreak looked like on Satine Kryze’s proud features and felt its echo in his own heart, before she blinked and gave him a resigned smile. 

“Of course,” she murmured ruefully. “I of all people cannot fault a commitment to principle.”

Words stuck in his throat.  _ I’m sorry, _ he wanted to tell her. But he was afraid of where that path led. He looked away and after a moment, she turned and settled silently back in his arms.

Obi-Wan closed his eyes and let any thoughts unbefitting a Jedi Master trickle out of his mind like a clear stream over pebbles. Eventually, he slept. 

* * *

Obi-Wan awoke to a shower of snow on his face as the plastic over their heads was pulled away. The thick blanket of accumulated snow slid to the ground with a thump.

“Rise and shine!”

“Anakin?” he asked, blinking in the sudden brightness. 

“Looks like you two had a cozy night.” The glee in his voice as he eyed the way they curled together was unbearable. 

The day had dawned clear and bright and, standing above them, Anakin looked disgustingly chipper. Next to him, Satine stretched and shook the snow off her hood. “Master Kenobi and I successfully avoided hypothermia after  _ someone _ crashed our ship on an ice planet, thank you very much.”

“I didn’t cr— never mind. Up and at ‘em, Master, Duchess. Ahsoka’s over in a nearby town negotiating for a ride off this iceball.”

Obi-Wan reluctantly rolled away from Satine and, groaning, pushed himself to his feet. He couldn’t take a night sleeping on the ground the way he used to.

“I don’t imagine you two had a more comfortable night,” he grumbled. 

“Oh, we rolled down the other side of that ridge and landed right in the center of some lichen farmer’s field. Hot dinner, warm bed, the works.” His eyes danced. “But I think you two still enjoyed yourselves more.”

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Why did they crash on this planet? To allow me to write huddling for warmth fic, of course! If I were gonna write a sequel to this, it would be sex pollen, so basically "Obi-Wan and Satine take a grand tour of fanfic tropes: the series."
> 
> It's interesting to watch the three Mandalore episodes in S2 and try to figure out exactly how each of them feel about their (lack of) relationship. Satine initiates their love confession on the ship and Obi-Wan is markedly more reluctant, but once they're free she's the one to walk it back ("I must get back to the business of diplomacy") and he looks upset as he says "another time". At the beginning of the next episode he calls them friends and Satine is clearly pissed off ("Yes, friends and nothing more"). 
> 
> My read on this is that Obi-Wan is upset to have it all dragged out into the open and made explicit when it can't go anywhere, and Satine, while she understands why it can't go anywhere, is upset that Obi-Wan seems to prefer to sweep it all under the rug and avoid acknowledging their feelings. They clearly enjoy bickering with each other, but I think by "Duchess of Mandalore" they're both truly a bit hurt and actually willing to jab at each other. I guess this fic is my opportunity to clear up some of those hard feelings. 
> 
> Also, I discovered while reading the transcripts of the episodes that there's exactly one "my dear" between them and SATINE says it! I'm shocked! But on second thought, I think that makes sense if Obi-Wan feels like it hurts too much to face up to what's between them.
> 
> Okay, there endeth the essay. Catch me on twitter @greenfionn!


End file.
